Just wanna be human
by Ducky the most evil Swimmer
Summary: Demons are known to be vile creatures, feasting on humankind at night. Miku, however, just wants to be turned back into a human. Her life is dominated by her feelings of guilt and regret and those demonic instincts she cannot completely overcome. Her biggest challenge in life is yet to come when a human offers her friendship. Can she prove that she is still human deep inside?


**Just wanna be human**

**Prologue: **

The little girl had appeared in the village one day in late spring season. It was a small village built in the shade of a large mountain with a population of approximately 300 villagers, largely farmers growing rice in the valley below.

No one knew who the mysterious girl was, where she had come from, where she lived or who her parents were. No one knew if she even had a family. It wasn't rare for children to be orphaned to sicknesses or poverty. Those children would live on the streets or be taken in by the more generous families of their hometown, however no one in this village knew anything about the girl other than that she was a beautiful kid dressed in dirty clothing, only showing herself on cloudy and rainy days, never talking to anyone, never buying or stealing food... and crying vividly in the adjacent forests each and every night.

People were generally too busy scraping a living and they were afraid of anything that seemed out of place so no one ever paid the girl any attention. Since she was apparently doing no harm, nobody bothered to chase her away or find out more about her. Some of the children were curious about the mysterious girl though but for the first three weeks after her appearance as summer began to roam with burdening heat for the villagers, the warning words of their parents were enough to keep them away. But that was about to change one day when a rare summer rain blessed the village and its rice crops...

* * *

"It's raining. Rain is beautiful. I like it when it rains..." The little girl looked up at the sky as she was woken by the gentle tip-tap of raindrops on the leaves of the trees. She liked the sky, especially since it reflected the meaning of her name, Miku, however she was too sensitive to sunlight to get a look at the beautiful hues of blue on a warm summer day. Being exposed to sunlight burned her skin to the point that blisters were blossoming like the sakura tree during spring season. It was certainly an unfortunate condition.

"Today is a good day," she said quietly to herself and got up, spreading her little fingers into the open to feel the rain on her skin. A wide smile appeared on her face. Today she could go to the village during daytime as indirect daylight didn't irritate her skin much (although it still didn't feel well during longer exposure)

As soon as she arrived at the main road, leading through the valley of rice fields filled with busy villagers tending to the crop and up to the village in the mountains, she was greeted with the looks of the villagers. Most were scolding her, as if she was something dirty, something filthy. True, her kimono wasn't as brightly yellow and orange as it had been when a generous woman gave it to her but she was almost sure that it was something else they were scolding, as if it was her very presence that was bothering them. Not everyone was giving her that look of course. The elderly women in particular sometimes had a smile to spare though she never smiled back. She was afraid of people for a number of reasons... but if she didn't mingle with folk every now and then, the sheer loneliness of her existence would simply strangle her. She was alone. All on her own. Nobody cared about her. Nobody liked her. Her life was cursed and it would once again become apparent on that day that she was many things the people thought she was... but also something that they didn't see, couldn't see... for she was hiding her true nature behind her appearance. She was disguised for her own good as well as the good of people around her and she never let anyone get close to her. On that rainy day, it became very clear once again why these measures were needed...

Wearing her usual sad and innocent face, she eventually left the farmers and walked up to the village...

* * *

"Hey Yusuke, there she is again!"

A small boy who had his hair shaved extremely short waved his small fingers at a figure emerging from the road leading up to the village. He and his older brother Yusuke were sitting in the family's shed where some chicken were held, hiding from the rain which was falling gently from the sky. From there, they watched how the strange girl in the dirty yellow-orange Kimono, wearing long black hair in two piggy tails contained by orange ribbons, was slowly walking into the village. Their parents had forbidden them to get involved with the strange child who had been showing herself around their home occasionally for a while now, however a combination of childish curiosity and boredom was enough to ignore the warnings and investigate. They wouldn't be back from field work before the evening came though. It was worth a shot. Besides, some of their sweets, a present from their uncle who lived in the city, had gone missing overnight and the older brother had a good idea who might be responsible as the shed where they hid them wasn't locked…

"Yukimaru, let's follow her but be quiet, alright?" the older boy, who was wearing his hair short as well though not quite as short as his little brother did, hissed at his younger brother. "I wanna find out what's up with this kid. We don't want her to notice us though; what if she tells our parents?"

Yukimaru nodded and so the two brothers followed the strange child around the village.

* * *

Due to the rain, the village was very empty. The girl walked along the main street which lead to the marketplace where few women sold food. One butcher and a bakery also decorated the main street. Few children were playing or helping with the household. The girl wanted to play with them, make friends and have fun but this was nothing but wishful thinking. She knew it wasn't possible. She knew it was too dangerous.

Eventually, she turned back and returned to the patch of trees where she slept and lived - as far as one could call it a home since she was homeless to be precise. Sadness was spreading in her chest like a poison as she was violently reminded of the hopelessness of her situation and tears shimmered in her eyes.

Her life was cursed.

* * *

The two brothers had patiently followed the girl around their village, still not any wiser. They were almost getting too bored of it when the mysterious child in the yellow-orange kimono took a sharp turn and walked into the forest surrounding their home, disappearing within the thick foliage.

"She disappeared!" Yukimaru hissed at his older brother, staring unbelievably into the vegetation dripping with the warm summer rain.

"So what, let's follow her!" Yusuke proposed vividly, a slight smirk appearing on his face. "Or are you scared, little bro?"

"Of course I'm not scared!" the small boy insisted indignantly, crossing his arms.

"And you needn't be as long as your big bro is protecting you," Yusuke boasted, flexing his muscles. "Let's go!"

As quiet as they could, the two boys slipped into the forest where it was much darker and gloomier. Instead of the light drizzle, now, occasionally, huge drops of water collecting on leaves above them fell onto them, much to their annoyance but pursuing this stranger would be well worth it. The girl had disappeared from their view but the wet ground revealed easily where a human had walked just moments ago and they were following that trail for a couple minutes.

"You know, I've been thinking..." Yusuke eventually whispered to his younger brother who followed on his wake. No matter how well he was trying to hide it, it was obvious that the little boy was spooked.

"Thinking what?" Yukimaru replied with shaky voice, eerily looking around as if expecting a bear to jump out at any moment.

"Oh, you know, I was thinking our parents might be really proud of us if we went ahead and chased that hideous girl away."

"Why would you chase her away, brother?" the smaller boy questioned innocently. "She's pretty."

"She may be pretty but she may also be a threat to our village," the older boy answered in a sudden dark voice.

"Why?" Yukimaru insisted with a puzzled expression.

"She clearly doesn't belong here," Yusuke declared, determined. "She's just another mouth to fill and crops have been pretty bad last year dad says. You do realize that we only get two meals a day because food wouldn't last us? We didn't see her steal but I know for a fact that she was walking around the house at night last night. I saw her. She's suspicious!"

"Ah, bro you're amazing," Yukimaru cheered as he understood his brother's motivation to follow the girl at last. Besides, if he'd find out it was actually him who ate the sweets at night...

"Yes, I am," Yusuke said though he wasn't bragging this time. The image of a girl dressed in an orange-yellow kimono was shimmering through the wet foliage and he immediately signaled his brother to halt.

"Quiet now," he hissed, slowly advancing and peeking through the bushes that hid them for now. The child was indeed far from an eyesore but she was dirty and filthy. She was sitting on the muddy ground which was covered in a carpet of fallen leaves and ferns to form something that was best described as a scrape to sleep in.

"So she lives here, huh?" he mumbled quietly so that only his little brother could hear. The girl was looking down at her feet as she sat there, hugging her own knees and swaying ever so lightly back and forth.

"Bro, is she sad? Maybe she is feeling lonely?" Yukimaru whispered as he, too, observed the mysterious girl.

"Who gives a damn? I'll get rid of her now!" Yusuke announced with a grin of anticipation. Bullying those weaker than him had always been one of his favorite past times and this girl, although around his age, surely would be no match for him... and there were no grown-ups to get in his way for once. Confidently, he suddenly broke through the underbrush.

* * *

Just when the girl was about to fall into another fit of sobbing - one of her favorite past times if one could call it that, there was a rustle in the bushes. Suddenly, a figure broke out; it was a human child, a boy about her size, and he wore a devious grin. Immediately, the girl jerked and jumped to her feet in fear.

"Well, if this isn't the mysterious kid that showed its face around here lately..." Yusuke sneered, stretching his arms. "What'cha doing here? Don't tell me you live here?"

The girl's eyes opened wide in fear. She could tell that this boy wasn't being kind towards her and this meant big big trouble. Apprehensively, she held her hands in front of her as if to show that she was harmless and meant nothing bad towards the boy.

"Eh? Can you even talk?" Yusuke snarled, walking up to the girl and poking her rudely. "Got a name?"

"Mi-mi-Miku!" the girl stammered in obvious fright. Why was the boy picking on her? She hadn't done anything wrong, had she?

"So, Mi-mi-miku..." Yusuke snarled, not revealing his name as would be polite and proper while dragging his voice in order to embarrass the girl with apparent success as she looked away shyly. "Tell me..." He cracked his fingers while wearing a devious grin. "Do you live here? Answer me you dirty girl!"

Miku was even more intimidated now, apparently shaking, her knees all wobbly.

***clap***

In the blink of an eye, the boy whipped out his hand and slapped the girl clean across her left cheek.

"You will answer my questions, you shit!" he growled. "What are you doing in our village? You don't belong here!"

"I-I'm not harming anyone, I have nowhere to go," Miku said with a pleading voice.

"Go to a different village you shit, there's no one here who would take in a filthy kid like you!" Yusuke pushed her aggressively against the chest. Miku had her back against a thick tree - she was cornered.

"I-I don't need someone to take me in... I can care for myself. Just let me stay..."

***slap***

Yusuke had hit the girl with his outstretched hand again, her cheek surely taking on a red color now. She didn't wince but he could tell that she was feeling pain.

"You moron, like we'd let you stay when you scavange around the houses looking for food and stealing when food is scarce! Bugger off already!"

"I didn't steal, I really didn't, I swear I didn't!" Miku was growing more worried by the minute. This boy didn't know what he was dealing with, accusing her falsely, and she was growing worried that her concealment would break at this rate.

"Oh, you swear?" Yusuke grinned madly, reaching for the girl's long piggy tail and pulling forcefully. "I don't believe you though..." His hand tightly gripping on the black hair of the girl, he swung one of his feet backwards only to ram it with great speed into the girl's stomach knee-first.

"You are a thief and I'll make sure you'll never come back here you moron!"

Miku gasped for air as she yelped in pain, sinking to the ground while holding her stomach. She was being wrongly accused by that boy and he still had no clue that she was dangerous.

Very dangerous.

But Yusuke didn't know that. Grinning back at Yukimaru, he said.

"Bro, can you find me something good I can beat her with? Like a strong stick? I'll teach her a lesson!"

"On it!" Yukimaru replied eagerly, abandoning his cover and heading away to search for the tool Yusuke had requested. He didn't really know why his big brother was acting so mean but he was better off doing what he was being told or else he might get angry with him and big bro could be very scary when angry...

"Great..." Yusuke said with a wicked smile. "In the meantime..." He swung his leg again, his wooden sandals making an audible impact with the girl's head who flinched at the impact. Soon, he was covering her with a barrel of those kicks, always aiming at whatever part of her body she wasn't protecting, enjoying it as the girl winced and cowered... though she didn't cry or complain as if she knew she was guilty.

After two minutes his excited little brother came running back to him, carrying a medium-sized stick, thick enough to do some beating but it's end was also rather sharp and quite well suited for stabbing.

"Good job, Yukimaru," Yusuke said with a genuine smile. The little boy quickly jumped back into cover when he ordered him with a flick of his hand. His eyes fell back onto the girl who in spite of his brutal assault didn't look too badly hurt aside from numerous bruises. Either she had a very resilient body or supernatural regeneration but the latter seemed highly unlikely. However, he could almost swear that her eye had been swollen just a minute ago when he kicked it with tremendous force...

_"Either way, this is ought to hurt her for real," _he mused as he grabbed onto the stick like a spear, aiming at the girl who had gotten back to her feet, opening her mouth to address him.

"Stop it..." she said quietly then repeating the words more fierce and confidently. "Stop it or you will get hurt! I-I mean it, I'm dangerous!"

"Yes, you are," he cackled, quickly changing his mind and swinging the stick like a mace and hitting her head with an audible ***klonk*** but the girl merely staggered from the force of the impact.

"I mean it, you will regret..."

***klonk***

The stick came down on the same spot which was quickly swelling and bruising.

"I'll regret ever allowing you to wander around and steal from us!"

"Once you'll draw blood from me you're in mortal danger!" the girl screamed in real panic but the boy just wouldn't listen. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"But I do!" Yusuke declared, boldly grabbing the girl by her kimono and pulling her close, lifting her a little bit and staring at her with menacing malevolence. "Then I'm just going to hurt you without drawing blood!"

"Oh, for crying out loud, I'm a..." but she never got to say what she really was. Yusuke repeatedly rammed his knee into her lower belly, pushing every bit of breath out of her lungs as her eyes bulged in pain, then lifting her as high as he could before slamming her onto the forest floor with a resounding thud. Grabbing the stick once more, he initiated a barrage of brutal hits on her back until the girl no longer tried to get to her feet and then continued to kick her at all imaginable places but her head which was most likely to bust open from a heavy kick. He was secretly hoping to make the pathetic stranger cry and beg but the girl endured it all even though her pain must have been great. Only when he took a short break to recover his strength he noticed that all her head injuries were practically gone. Infuriated, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back to her feet, pushing her against the tree with all his strength.

"You're healing yourself, aren't you?" he growled angrily, his head almost touching hers with was in an expression of extreme uneasiness. "I don't know how you do it but I won't hold back anymore!"

"D-don't..." Miku begged, not because she was afraid of the violence but because she was afraid of what would happen to the boy who was trying so hard to injure her greatly. Suddenly, her eyes widened in panic as the boy aimed the sharp end of the stick directly at her stomach and rammed it right into a spot just below her bellybutton. A sharp pain emerged and something warm began oozing into the yellow cloth of her kimono, staining it crimson red. The stick hadn't gone far in but she had been wounded to the point of bleeding. The boy had ignored her and now he would pay. Extreme anger rose within her and she could feel her human disguise dissipate as her body morphed to reveal her true nature. Muscles grew where there had been a meek little girl who looked badly underfed, finger- and toenails grew into claws, teeth grew into fangs and her beautiful hair turned wild. The expression on her face was contorted into an angry, wild expression.

Miku was a demon. A man-eating creature of the night.

"What the..." Yusuke gasped and Yukimaru uttered a scream. Neither of them had ever seen something so ugly, so grotesk and both could tell now that the words of the girl hadn't been empty. She had completely recovered all her injuries in mere seconds and was now strutinizing the two boys with an expression of desire.

"Yukimaru run and get the villagers!" Yusuke ordered as panic arose within him. "I'll hold her off until they arrive!"

"You're no match to me when I'm in this form!" Miku growled, only her sheer willpower preventing her from attacking just yet. "Run and you will live, fight and you will perish!" If the boy wanted to run away she'd let him run but if he decided to continue fight her, there was no way she could win against the demonic instincts inside her which were only showing when she was in her non-human form.

"Run already!" Yusuke repeated, addressing his younger brother who was apparently too scared to move or too worried to leave him behind. "I'll be fine, now GO!"

Finally, Yukimaru jumped onto his feet and ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Yusuke felt the stinging glare in his neck. He was ignoring the words of the girl with supernatural abilities. Why should he run now? He'd be a hero! He'd allow the adults to capture this vile creature if only he was able to keep her where she was and buy time.

"So... nice weather today, isn't it, monster?" he said casually but it took no genius to figure him out.

"Last... Chance!" Miku growled, her whole body trembling wildly as she tried to fight her desire to rip this human in front of her into a thousand pieces. "Get out of my sight or I'll eat you!"

Yusuke ignored the threat until he saw that the girl was salivating and taking stance to charge. Quickly, he took a stance himself, holding the stick defensively in front of him.

"My injuries will heal, yours won't! GET AWAY NOW!" The girl sunk her claws deep into her legs as a last means to prevent herself from attacking but the boy didn't catch the hint.

"You can't be invincible, I'll kill you with this stick, yes I will!" Yusuke declared more self-confident now, aiming at the girl's chest carefully.

Suddenly, the trembling stopped and the girl became strangely calm.

"Forgive me..." he heard her say in a quiet voice. Then, she jumped into a mad sprint towards him. Yusuke had barely any time to react. With a quick and desperate motion, he swung the stick. The demon girl leaped for his throat but he drove the stick towards her approaching body and pierced her around where the liver was. Blood rained onto him as the sheer momentum pushed him from his feet, falling roughly onto his back with the demon girl above him, impaled on the stick. For a moment, he thought he had won but then he was met with a murderous gaze before the claws of the girl came down on him and ripped his chest right open. Pain rocked his body like he had never felt in his whole life, not even when he broke an arm once. Blood came oozing out of the injuries although they weren't deep. The girl swung her claws again and more gashes appeared with a crippling sound. The boy was too terrified to scream and he let go of the stick, the demon falling right onto his bleeding torso.

"You should have listened to me you fool!" she hissed as she reigned above the trembling boy who was wetting himself in fear. She exposed her gruesome set of teeth and dug into his shoulder without warning. The screams of the boy could be heard for miles but with each bite she took they grew weaker until the child went quiet forever.

She had killed and devoured a human again.

* * *

**This is a short to mid-length one-shot type fanfiction written in the universe of the anime and manga "Kimetsu no Yaiba" which roughly translated to "Blade of Demon Destruction" or just "Demon Slayer" for short. Even if you're not a fan of the genre, it is one of the best animes out there and I guarantee you'll like it if you try it! **

**This may seem like a pretty random scene at first but this is exactly what I decided to choose as an opening sequence for the story, since it reveals the struggles of our main character, the demon girl Miku. This is what she has to deal with on a daily routine. She is a demon who doesn't want to be a demon, a demon who feels remorse about the deeds she has done. A human forced to live the life of a demon. The next chapter should hopefully give some more insight into her mind, her motivations etc. and explain her abilities a bit better (Those who have seen the anime might go "wtf? Ducky, did you even watch the anime?" but rest assured that I did and chose her abilities carefully even if there might not be any demon with such abilities in the canon story) but as I said I want to wait for the anime to conclude which should be in about 2 weeks from now before I will fully outline the story and continue to write it.**

**This is my first serious attempt at writing anime fanfiction so feedback is welcome :)**

* * *

**Also, since does only allow exceptionally short summaries, here is a more detailed synopsis for the future for those interested:**

_**Miku is an orphaned child in appearance but she is hiding her true self. She's a demon, vile, man-eating creatures who prey upon humankind at night. Turned into a demon against her will, Miku is struggling with life as she has to bear her guilt, having killed many many people against her will. Even though she doesn't want to be a demon, even though she has used the powers given to her to become as close to a human as possible for a demon, even able to withstand indirect daylight, she cannot win against the demonic instincts that reside within her. **_

_**Miku's existence is one full of sadness and regret, full of loneliness and dreams that can never be fulfilled. One late summer season though she finally finds someone who understands her predicament, someone who offers her friendship in spite of her demonic nature. Finally, it seems like Miku's life is worth living, however it won't be long before troubles arise. There is only so long a demon can go without food while keeping sane. Befriending her food puts her through the biggest challenge of her life and before long Tanjirou and Nezuko are being ordered to hunt her down. Can Miku throw away her demonic nature or will she perish at the blade of the Demon Slayer?**_

* * *

Don't expect exceptionally quick updates on this story since I'm pretty much full with work as it is. 1-2 chapters a month is about what you can expect (I'm being optimistic here) I also still need to read the manga at some point :D


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